ABSTRACT
A main theme of this book has been the ebb and flow of integration in Germany through the centuries. The power amassed by several great Emperors between Charlemagne and Barbarossa was lost by their successors to Popes and Princes. Centrifugal forces waxed as the Middle Ages waned. They were further strengthened by the Reformation and the Thirty Years’ War. Only towards the end of the eighteenth century did the tide begin to turn; only by a compromise between local and national loyalties did unification become possible. After it was achieved the process of consolidation developed steadily until in 1914 the Social Democrats voted for the war credits. But it was not long before disintegration set in and continued until 1933. The Nazis then made the creation of a single united people (ein Volk) top priority and, in spite of their brutalities, had gone a long way to success by June 1940. By the time of the Stunde Null in 1945, consensus had been lost again. Success led the citizens of the Federal Republic to take a pride in their four-fifths of a nation but the rulers of the remainder were incapable of rousing enough loyalty to make their society durable. Now the political framework of a single German nation has been re-established in a form which assigns a considerable role to the Länder Governments. Is it likely to prove more permanent than its predecessors?
